I agree with you entirely. And though I think that his approach doesn’t work as soon as he dips his toe into turbulent waters, it’s more a marginal note with little significance for his work in general. I’ve far more trouble to go along with the kind of rule-bending, cliché-riddled, low on self-irony wish-fulfillment fantasy that he put down in Changes – but I have already talked about that in the proper place and, of course, can see why other readers assess the book differently. Bummer. I thought my annoyance might fade away with time to give room to some rekindled interest in Ghost Story.
The discussion of religion in Dresdenverse started with the question of Michael Carpenter being “handled” by God. The books have made it clear that BELIEF is critical. Harry turns vampires with his magic amulet (rather than a holy symbol) because he believes in the power of magic. Others use a holy symbol because they believe in the power that symbol represents. Michael Carpenter believes in the Christian God, and thus the story makes perfect sense. Harry meets Archangels (from the Christian theology) and Odin (from Norse) and various demons and what-not from other theologies. They all seem to co-exist.
Using Archangels as stand-ins works fine in fantasy worlds (as in Role Playing Games) because bringing in the Judeo-Christian God overturns all the others. Just using Archangels makes them just another set of divine critters amongst many. N’est-ce pas?
[warning, the penultimate paragraph contains spoilers wrt The Warrior]
I have to admit, I never role-played. And though I love the fantastical in literature, I don’t read much fantasy beyond the pointedly absurd, so I don’t know if other authors managed to integrate the archangels of an omnipotent God into their worlds logically (hmm, could be an interesting question for another thread).
I have my doubts that it could work in Butcher’s universe beyond the most shallow, don’t ever think about it, level – which is fine for urban fantasy, unless, like in The Warrior, the author deliberately starts a discussion about the implications that come with an omnipotent, supposedly benevolent entity that engages – if only by representatives - in the events.
The possibility that Butcher did that, constituted two of my points: a) a critique of adequateness in dealing with the ethical and philosophical questions raised by the author in the story and b) the question of consistency wrt the rules of the established universe.
And since I haven’t clearly distinguished the related third one: I have some trouble here with the characterization of Harry too. I don’t think it’s quite in-character for him to accept all those claims like a good boy without asking any of the difficult questions that any teenager could come up with.
To highlight just one snark-worthy notion: the archangel suggests that God knows what’s going to happen to all those people Harry was dealing with during the events … or not, because things might turn out different regardless; free will, Harry, free will. Why Harry didn’t point out, that he has exactly the same power of prediction, well, that everyone and his neighbour does, is strange for a guy who, while dealing with other magical beings, rarely fails to sniff out their bullshit – and this one was pretty obvious, even though he was drunk ;).
Anyway, I’m not saying that this is major stuff or that urban fantasy should penetrate the problem of God and evil and suffering and free will on a level remotely close to Goethe or Kant or Dostoyevsky. Of course not. But if the topic is broached deliberately, it’s fair to dissect it just a little bit more than usual.
I started re-reading all the books, so I can read the stories in Side Jobs in their proper place, and I found that in chapter 6 of Grave Peril Lea refers to him as “the White God”. I admit that little variant seems to have been forgotten in all the other references to the Xtian deity since, but ISTM that at some point, Butcher was at least thinking that he was indeed one of many, bound by the same requirements as Odin, etc. and not the god.